State govt plans to bring in law to ensure timely approvals for investment proposals

The state government is planning to introduce a law that will override powers of the departments to approve investment proposals if they have failed to do so within the prescribed time limit

The state government is planning to introduce a law that will override powers of the departments to approve investment proposals if they have failed to do so within the prescribed time limit. A state-appointed committee will then take over and clear the proposals.

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A draft of the bill, Maharashtra Industry, Trade and Investment Facilitation (MAITRI), was approved by the cabinet on Tuesday. It will now be placed before the legislature in the budget session.

“Under the new law, further process will be taken over by the MAITRI-empowered committee. The department concerned loses its power once the prescribed period is over,” Harshdeep Kamble, principal secretary, industries department, said.

The order passed by the committee will be final, he said. “This is a big change. Earlier we used to ask them to act fast. Now we can take the matter into our own hands.”

The panel will be headed by the development commissioner (industries) with secretaries from other departments, among others, as members.

The move assumes significance in the backdrop of a controversy stoked after big-ticket projects that were supposed to come to Maharashtra went to Gujarat in the run-up to the assembly elections last year. This had brought major embarrassment to the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis alliance.

Deependra Kushwah, industries commissioner, told HT that there should be no apprehension that MAITRI will override powers of other departments.

“It will deal with the proposals that are related to permissions for setting up industries. The proposals will first be sent to the departments for approval and after their inaction within a given time frame, they will come back to the committee for further action,” Kushwah said, adding the bill aims to provide services in a time-bound manner and make Maharashtra a preferred destination for investors.

The bill also envisages a supervisory committee headed by industries secretary, which will look into regular functioning of the MAITRI panel.

In 2017, the state government had formed a MAITRI cell for the investors to get information and timely approvals. A portal was also created but it was found that the departments failed to provide permissions on time despite reminders by the cell.